Pages

Sanjuro (1962)

Review #1,285

THE SCOOPDirector: Akira KurosawaCast: Toshirô Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Takashi ShimuraPlot: A crafty samurai helps a young man and his fellow clansmen save his uncle, who has been framed and imprisoned by a corrupt superintendent.Genre: Drama / ActionAwards: -Runtime: 96minRating: PG for some violence.Distributor: Toho IN RETROSPECT (Spoilers: NO)

“He was exactly like me. A naked sword. He didn't stay in his sheath.”

Toshiro Mifune snarled and growled
to even bigger fame as the nameless wandering samurai in Yojimbo (1961), which was remade by Sergio Leone as A Fistful of Dollars(1964). So much so that the sequel was released only
a year after, with director Akira Kurosawa returning to helm it after initially
declining the offer.

Well, Sanjuro is not exactly a sequel – there is no temporal reference to
Yojimbo, nor is there any indicator
when the events of both films took place.
It could even be a prequel – such terms were probably not very
meaningful fifty years ago, so as far as the two pictures are concerned, they
are companion pieces.

In Sanjuro, Mifune's character (known as Tsubaki Sanjuro)
ignominiously wakes up in the middle of a serious political meeting of several
hideaways left isolated after a coup d'état sees their master captured. What transpires after is a darkly comic
treatise on the art of strategic planning with unfortunate mishaps as the group
led by Sanjuro himself attempts to infiltrate an army commanded by Hanbei
Muroto, deviously played by Tatsuya Nakadai.

Overall, Sanjuro is a lighter if lesser effort than Yojimbo. In fact, it would
also count as slight in Kurosawa's body of work. However, it remains largely entertaining due
in part to Mifune's magnetic performance and a few well-choreographed fight
scenes.

The plotting does feel overly
complicated, and it takes some time for things to make sense, and who the side
characters are. It's the kind of film
where a second viewing might be more illuminating than the first. Up till its violent climax that is startling
in its ferocity, Kurosawa keeps the film rather low-key as mind games of the
shrewd if deceptive kind are played out.

Unlike such gems as Seven Samurai(1954), Throne of Blood (1957) or The Hidden Fortress (1958), Sanjuro doesn’t seem to be endlessly
rewatchable. Still, there is enough in
its tank to suggest that Kurosawa was keener to explore the intricacies of
storytelling. Case in point: a tense if
comical sequence involving the use of camellias as a communication signal is
one of the most elaborate set-pieces of Kurosawa’s oeuvre.

Verdict:
A lighter if lesser effort by Kurosawa, but it is no less entertaining
and darkly comic than its companion
piece Yojimbo (1961).